'Enlist Brawling Yeshiva Students as Riot Police'

Former Education Minister Shai Piron took to twitter to advocate for IDF enlistment following yeshiva brawl and haredi protests.

Cynthia Blank, 02/02/15 17:05

Ponevezh Yeshiva (illustration)

Yaakov Naumi/Flash 90

Yesh Atid has managed to twist the Ponevezh Yeshiva violence to its political advantage, with the pro-enlistment comments of Former Education Minister Shai Piron on his Twitter account.

Piron wrote that he would like to enlist the students, who took part in the brawl Monday morning at the renowned Bnei Brak yeshiva, into the Yasam.

Yasam is an Israel Police Special Patrol Unit that deals with any type of disruption to public order, including riots and protests. The unit is known for its no-nonsense and sometimes heavy-handed approach to cracking down on rioters.

Violent clashes broke out at the Ponevezh Yeshiva after the yeshiva's dean Rabbi Shmuel Markovich was assaulted by a member of an opposing haredi faction Sunday night.

The student was arrested Monday morning, following a report to police by yeshiva students who witnessed the incident, but denied the charges, claiming instead that he had been attacked by Rabbi Markovich's followers.

Following the arrest, several other students were wounded as violence flared up between the two opposing factions, with witnesses saying that tear gas was even used in the confrontation.

Hatzalah medical crews were called to the scene, giving treatment to the wounded students and bringing some of them to Maayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak. Police forces also streamed into the yeshiva to break apart the fight.

"It does not seem to me that those who know how to fight like those at the Ponevezh Yeshiva should be exempt from military service," Piron wrote, adding, "I would recruit them right away to the Yasam."

Piron's comments are particularly timely considering the haredi demonstrations against enlistment to the Israel Defense Forces that took place across Israel Monday.

Dozens of haredi activists took the streets in protest of the arrest of four haredi yeshiva studentswho refused orders to enlist as part of the controversial Enlistment Law passed, through Yesh Atid's initiative, in the last Knesset.